Avoid PowerShell GBK Encoding Issues

On Chinese Windows systems, the PowerShell console and redirection operators (>, >>) often use the system default encoding (GBK / code page 936). Writing UTF-8 text through PowerShell can silently corrupt Chinese characters into garbled text.

Prohibited practices

Do not use PowerShell to write or overwrite files:

• echo "..." > file.txt
• echo "..." >> file.txt
• Set-Content file.txt "..."
• Out-File file.txt without explicit -Encoding UTF8
• Any other PowerShell command that creates or modifies file bytes indirectly

These methods are unreliable because encoding defaults vary by locale and PowerShell version.

Preferred approach

Always use the dedicated file tools:

• WriteFile for creating or overwriting files
• StrReplaceFile for editing existing files

These tools write UTF-8 deterministically and avoid shell encoding pitfalls.

When Shell is unavoidable

If a script or command must write files through PowerShell, force UTF-8 explicitly:

"content" | Out-File -FilePath "file.txt" -Encoding UTF8

Or use .NET directly:

[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText("file.txt", "content", [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8)

Always verify the produced file is readable and not garbled before finishing.

Verify encoding

Check the active console code page:

chcp

If it returns 936, PowerShell redirection is especially unsafe for UTF-8 content. Fall back to file tools.